Yahoo! tops NBC in Olympic traffic

Yahoo!’s Web pages devoted to
Winter Olympics coverage drew more unique visitors than NBCOlympics.com,
according to a widely used Internet traffic measurement firm.

In data compiled by comScore Media Metrix, the Yahoo! Olympics pages
attracted more unique users in each of the three weeks of the Torino Games than
NBC’s site (see chart). This was despite NBCOlympics.com being able to offer
video from the games and being promoted heavily on NBC television coverage.

Yahoo!, which also posted strong traffic numbers during the 2004 Summer
Olympics, successfully redirected many users from other parts of its portal to
its Olympics pages. The numbers surprised Yahoo! officials, and provided a
strong testimonial to the company’s evolving interest in original content. For
the Olympics, Yahoo! brought in a large stable of writers, licensed video from
the U.S. Figure Skating Federation and other sources, and bulked up its Webcast
show, SportStream.

“Given everything NBC did to boost its online distribution for the
Olympics, such as its deals with ESPN, Google and the like, I really wasn’t
sure how competitive we were going to be,” said David Katz, Yahoo! head of
sports and entertainment. “But we’re thrilled with these numbers.”

Yahoo!’s development from a
content aggregator to content generator remains a work-in-progress, with Lloyd
Braun, head of Yahoo!’s media group, recently opting to move away from
developing TV-style Web shows. Within sports, however, Katz said the plan is to
increase original content significantly under Dave Morgan, the new executive
editor for Yahoo! Sports.

NBC, while not responding directly to Yahoo! or the comScore data, is
putting its faith in data compiled through WebTrends, a rival measurement
outfit contracted by NBC, in which it said NBCOlympics.com generated 15.7
million unique visitors between the beginning of January and the end of the
games.

NBC’s totals in the comScore study did not include traffic on ESPN.com,
which received day-old highlight clips through a licensing deal between the two
parties.